The Scoop Blog

Category Archives: Trinity River

Zebra mussels multiply at astounding rates and can wreak havoc on water intakes such as those at this drinking water treatment plant on Lewisville Lake.

Less than a year after biologists discovered an established population of zebra mussels in Lake Ray Roberts, a researcher has found a live juvenile mussel near the dam at Lewisville Lake.

Christopher Churchill, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said this infestation is probably the result of contaminated boats being transported to Lewisville Lake from another contaminated lake. But it’s possible, he said, that the juvenile made the trip downstream from Lake Ray Roberts via the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

Here's a zebra mussel (attached to a rock) that was pulled from Lake Ray Roberts in May. (Al Key/Denton Record Chronicle)

So far, no other mussels have been found in Lewisville Lake, so the juvenile mussel probably arrived recently, Churchill said.

Zebra mussels, native to eastern Europe and Russia, arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s in ballast water from ocean-going ships. The first mussels were found in 1988 and have now infested waterways in 29 states and 600 lakes or reservoirs in the U.S.

The mussels, which have no real predators, multiply at astounding rates, biologists say, quickly blanketing almost any fixed surface, including docks, pipelines and water intakes, a potential maintenance nightmare in North Texas where rivers and lakes provide the region’s water supply.

Officials urge boat owners to fully clean and dry boats when moving them from one lake to another, and emptying live wells on fishing boats. With Lewisville Lake’s popularity as a boating destination, officials say scrupulous cleaning of boats can slow — but likely won’t stop — the movement of mussels into the lake.

About 200 Southwest Airlines employees gathered this morning to beautify the Trinity River in Dallas as the airline announced a three-year partnership with the city and the Trinity Trust Foundation.

“We put out the call for volunteers,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said, “and as you can tell this morning, we don’t have to ask very hard.”

Kelly announced a $150,000 grant for the creation of the Trinity River Conservation Corps, saying he was proud to be a part of the Dallas community and thanking his company’s employees for their efforts.

Among the volunteers was Southwest quality team leader Monica Santa Cruz, who planned to spend the better part of Friday clearing weeds and hauling out trash bags with her fellow employees.

“We’re interested in helping any way we can with beautifying the city of Dallas,” she said.

The Trinity River Corridor Project is the largest urban development project undertaken by the city, officials said. Not only does the project prevent flooding, but it also serves to maintain and improve the environment around the Trinity River Corridor.

Gail Thomas, president of the Trinity Trust, thanked Southwest for its contribution to Dallas, and for giving residents “the opportunity to come out in this beautiful area of nature.”

I learned something in the research for today’s column about trying to bring barge traffic to the Red River and Dallas’ back door.

It seemed a folly that Dallas kept trying to get steamboats here in its early history. What I didn’t realize is that riverboats were getting very close to Dallas on a quite regular basis. Trinidad, between Athens and Corsicana, was a particularly busy port on the Trinity.

Here’s what The Handbook of Texas says: “Between 1852 and 1874 some fifty boats plied the Trinity, going as far north as Trinidad in Henderson County and Porter’s Bluff in Navarro County.”

Dallas promoters must have ached to get that traffic just a little further north, but only two boats ever made it.

Sixteen residents, most from Rowlett, portrayed Seaway Pipeline as a threat the area’s water supply. Industry officials say the 36-year-old pipeline will not be corroded by transporting heavy Canadian crude oil.

The speakers promised their movement will continue with presentations at city council “citizen comment” periods throughout the area. The pipeline runs 500 miles from Cushing, Okla. to Houston, passing though Farmersville, Nevada, Royse City, Terrell and Kaufman.

UPDATE, 4:21 p.m. Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says the alligator was found at the Fort Worth Nature Center, and that authorities are investigating to determine if poaching was involved in its death.

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David Schecter of WFAA-TV posted this photo on Twitter of a dead 11.5-foot-long alligator found in the Trinity River in Fort Worth.

The big reptile isn’t alone. Alligators — dead and living — turn up from time to time in Texas rivers, including the Trinity. They are usually, but not always, found in the southern or eastern reaches of the state.

Tony Weathers, 30, was reported missing by friends and family on April 14 after he did not finish the military-style obstacle course and race near LaGrave Field. His body was recovered from the Trinity River the next day.

A short swim across a segment of the river was one of the obstacles on the race course.

If “give his perspective” means “get off the fence,” there doesn’t seem to be much doubt as to which side the mayor will come down on.

As Staff Writer Rudolph Bush reported on our City Hall blog, Rawlings will be joined at the news conference “by longtime toll road proponents,” including Lee Jackson, the former Dallas County judge who is now chancellor of the University of North Texas; Donna Halstead, president of the Dallas Citizens Council; John Scovell, CEO of Woodbine Development Corp; and Dave Neumann, the former City Council member from Oak Cliff who used to chair the council’s Trinity River project committee.

Finally, it’s the 175th anniversary of the birth of Henry Martyn Robert, the author of Robert’s Rules of Order, still the authoritative manual of parliamentary procedure.

According to the official Robert’s Rules of Order website, the book came to be after Robert, a West Point graduate and Army officer, “was asked to preside over a public meeting being held in a church in his community and realized that he did not know how. He tried anyway and his embarrassment was supreme.”

He began to research guides on how to run a meeting and, in 1876, published the first edition of his Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies. In 2011, the 11th edition was published.

In the Army, Robert served as a military engineer, rising to the rank of brigadier general and serving as chief of the Army Corps of Engineers before his retirement in 1901.

After his retirement, according to Wikipedia, “he chaired a board of engineers that designed the Galveston, Texas, seawall following the Galveston Hurricane of 1900.”